The former Communications Minister during Rawlings’ regime and Former Minister for Trade and Industry under the John Mahama administration, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, has criticized President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for failing to honor promises he made to Ghanaians.

According to Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, the President made many claims and promises that were meant to be manifested once he was elected into office. The politician noted that some of these promises such as the President’s promise of protecting the public purse and not appointing friends and family into office have not materialized and have been a disappointment.

“Many of the things that our current President promised us when he was being sworn in, is that he will take care of the public purse, that he will not appoint family and friends; almost all those things, that he will lay his presidency on the line to protect our natural resources: actually the rivers bodies and our gold; most of those promises have become nothing. They have just gone out and there is no attempt to apologize.”
Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah

Dr. Spio-Garbrah stated that looking at the current Akufo Addo administration, most of the major roles are being played by the family members or close friends of the president. He explained that this means the President has totally broken his promise of not involving family and friends in the governing of the country. “Most contracts are circulating between his own kind of people”.

“That is not how the leader of a nation should go about the business of the country. This puts the pockets of the nation in jeopardy of being passed to and fro amongst the pockets of a select few who have no intention of helping the nation but their pockets or financial growth.”
Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah

According to the former Trade and Industry Minister under the Mahama administration, most of the country’s current economic woes should be blamed on the current government because the NDC left office with a fairly good economy. However, he said the NPP has misused the nation’s resources and now the economy is being left in shambles.

The former Communications Minister during Rawlings’ regime explained that the government’s “overestimating” attitude of its capacities left it to avoid safety measures for its disbursement, hence its lavishness in expenses and the mismanaging of the economy.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo should have done better than the NDC.

Dr. Ekow indicated that since the NDC was trolled so much by the current Addo Dankwa’s administration during the past elections, then the current party in power should have been doing far better than the NDC because it is only logical for the latter to be better than the former.

Spio-Garbrah further claimed that the government misjudged the NDC in its expenses made and yet came to power and are doing even worse than what the NDC did. “This is not good for record-keeping on behalf of the Nana Addo administration,” he stated.

“Most of the current crisis began with the current government. They have to take some or most of the responsibility because they were left with a fairly good economy by the previous outgoing Mahama administration. The way they went about misunderstanding the economy and misrepresenting it, led to them overestimating their capabilities and all we have now for the main thing is now basically coming to haunt us.”
Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah

The former Trade and Industry Minister under the Mahama administration noted that the economy would have not been faced with such challenges if the government had managed its resources better. “If the President really meant all that he said, then he would have truly learned from the mistakes made by the predecessors and would have made plans to put Ghana in a better economy,” he stressed.